


comfort

by marahope



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2021-04-21 01:16:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22022587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marahope/pseuds/marahope
Summary: nova is sad :( but adrian is there so she becomes a little less sad :)
Relationships: Nova Artino | Nightmare/Adrian Everhart | Sketch
Kudos: 15





	comfort

Nova stumbled out of the elevator after her team, following them into the lounge. Oscar and Ruby rushed over to one of the gaming tables—as usual—while Adrian and Danna walked to one of the vending machines. Nova trailed after them, dragging her feet. Despite not needing sleep, she felt exhausted.

She stumbled a little and just barely managed to catch herself before she fell into Adrian. He turned around, reaching out to steady her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, worry evident in his expression.

Nova hesitated before nodding. “I...I’m just feeling a little worn out. I think I might go lie down in one of the private rooms for a bit.”

His hands fell from her shoulder. Leaning down, he cupped her cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been... _ off _ lately. You seem more on edge, like worse than usual.”

She was silent for a moment, trying to come up with an excuse. Nova wished she could just tell him about the Anarchists and Ace being in jail. Tell him about being Nightmare and the stress of the inevitable reveal that loomed in the distance. But she couldn’t. Not so long as she was parading around as a Renegade, pretending her name was Nova McLain.

“My—my uncle,” she said finally, stammering. “His health seems to be getting worse and worse every day. He’s starting to really worry me.” At least it wasn’t a  _ complete _ lie, but it wasn’t entirely true either.

Adrian nodded, dropping his hand. He straightened and offered her a sympathetic smile. “I hope he feels better soon, Nova.”

“Thank you,” whispered Nova, tears forming in her eyes. She quickly blinked them away. Slowly, she backed away from him and turned, heading into one the private rooms.

Nova shut the door, glancing around the room. Already her tears threatened to spill. She ambled over to the cot, collapsing on it.

Above the bed hung a poster that looked like it was from an old comic book. On it, a woman was being carried by a superhero. Above her head was a speech bubble with large text that said, “I’d know you come! You  _ always _ come!”

No matter where Nova looked, the bright colors and bold words taunted her. The phrase repeated over and over in her head, to the point where she felt like she was going mad. Finally, the tears overtook her and she buried her face in the pillow. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her whole body was shaking as she remembered her family and the Renegades who had failed to keep their promise. How they _didn’t_ _come_.

Soon, her silent tears turned to sobs. Nova let all of the emotions she’d been holding in for years out. Crying about her family and the Anarchists and everything else that was going wrong in her life. Nobody was here to see her and she was free to shed as many tears as she needed without judgment. The Anarchists had taught her to bury all her emotions, saying they got in the way of important goals, so it felt like a small weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Nova wasn’t sure how long she’d been in there when a knock sounded at the door.

At first, she ignored it, wishing she had bothered to lock the door. Then the knock came again, a little louder this time, accompanied with Adrian’s voice.

“Nova, are you okay?” he called from outside, a small bit of panic seeping through.

She sat up and sniffled, wiping at her eyes with her wrist.

“No,” she answered, her voice barely louder than a whisper. She wasn’t even sure if he had been able to hear it.

“Do you want me to come in? I’m here to listen if you want to talk.”

Nova considered his offer for a few seconds, drawing her knees to her chest. The bright poster mocked her from the corner of her eye and was nearly enough to send her into another fit. She eventually managed to muster up the courage to tell him to come him. Her gaze was trained on the floor, vision blurred with tears.

Adrian gradually opened the door, poking his head inside before entering and closing the door behind him. He rushed over to her, taking a seat on the edge of the cot.

Nova slowly blinked away the tears, her gaze resting on Adrian. His brow was furrowed in concern, his eyes searching hers.

Adrian reached for one of her hands, squeezing it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked gently, reaching up with his other hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. He dropped his hand, fingers brushing against her cheek.

She shook her head, losing her composure once more. Nova leaned forward, burying her forehead in his shoulder as her tears started to spill again.

Adrian went still for a second before wrapping his arms around her. He held Nova tightly as she cried into his chest.

As her tears started to slow, she thought back to when she was six and Ace had tried to comfort while she cried over her family. The mere thought of her uncle brought on another torrent of tears and she buried her face closer to Adrian’s chest. His arms tightened around her and he placed a kiss against the top of her head, whispering something that she couldn’t quite hear.

Nova finally pulled away minutes later, avoiding his gaze. He loosened his arms.

“Are you alright?” he whispered, worriedly.

She shook her head. “No, but there’s not much I can do about it. Not without making it worse,” she said, simply.

“What do you mean?” 

“I can’t talk about it right now. It...it’s complicated.”

He nodded. “I understand. But, Nova, you know you can talk to me if you ever need anything. I really care about you and—”

“Adrian,  _ please _ stop talking and just hold me. That’s all I need right now.”

Adrian smiled softly and pulled her into an embrace, which she returned. Nova allowed herself to get caught up in the feeling of having his arms around her and the faint scent of pine. Nova buried all of her worries, mirroring his smile. For a moment, it was just her and Adrian Everhart, no concern of secret identities.


End file.
